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來源于《圖書與藝術》版塊
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The Farm. By Joanne Ramos.
《農場》。作者：喬安妮·拉莫斯
For Jane, a job at Golden Oaks, an elegant property north of Manhattan, seems almost too good to be true. She spends her days swaddled in cashmere, engaged in light exercise and nourished by organic superfoods. Her bedroom is far more luxurious than the dormitory in Queens where she and her newborn daughter bunked with dozens of fellow Filipinas; the pay is much better than her previous jobs. The hitch is that she had to leave her child, relinquish her freedom and carry a baby to term for one of the most powerful women in the world.
曼哈頓北部一處優雅的房產名為黃金橡，對于簡而言，在這工作似乎美好得不真實。她每天裹著開司米，進行輕度運動，吃有機超級食品。她的臥室比皇后區的宿舍豪華得多，她和剛出生的女兒與數十名菲律賓同胞同住在這里；薪水比她以前的工作高得多。問題是她不得不離開自己的孩子，放棄自由，為世界上最有權勢的女人之一代孕。
This is the unnervingly plausible set-up for Joanne Ramos’s impressive debut novel, “The Farm”. The title comes from the employees’ name for this high-end surrogacy outfit, where mostly destitute women incubate the infants of the 1%. Befitting an era when parents strive to give their offspring ever-more sophisticated advantages, the place is calibrated to maximise “fetal potential”, with customised diets, wristbands to monitor activity levels and wearable machines that broadcast Mozart’s symphonies and Churchill’s speeches directly into the womb. Hired “hosts” submit to constant scrutiny—there are cameras everywhere. White surrogates are rare and command a premium, particularly if they have been to university.
這就是喬安妮·拉莫斯令人印象深刻的處女作《農場》中刻畫的令人不安的似是而非的場景。這個書名來自于這家高端代孕機構的員工名字，在這家機構里，大多數貧困女性為1%的人代孕嬰兒。在這個時代，父母們努力給后代更多復雜的優勢，得益于此，這個地方的標準是最大化“胎兒潛能”，飲食定制，腕帶用來監測活動水平，可穿戴設備可以將莫扎特的交響樂和丘吉爾的演講直接送入子宮。雇傭的“代孕”要接受持續的審查——到處都是攝像頭。白人代孕者很少見，而且價格不菲，尤其是如果還上過大學。
譯文由可可原創，僅供學習交流使用，未經許可請勿轉載。
